Russian authorities have denied reports that Ukrainian MP and former Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev had been slapped with a 5-year entrance ban to Crimea. Dzhemilev claims he was given a travel restriction order on the Russia-Ukraine border.

A spokesman for the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) told
Ukrinform that the agency does not have any information on the
travel ban imposed on the Ukranian MP from the Batkivshina Party
and a former head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Mustafa Dzhemilev,
to enter Russian territory.

“We do not have such information. Therefore, why do you think
that we have banned him from entering the Russian Federation? I
can send you the same document, you can also send it to me. I've
seen it, and there is really nothing to comment on here.”

The FMS representative called the ‘document’ that Dzhemilev
claims he was handed on Tuesday and posted on Mejlis website
“just a piece of paper.”

“It's just a piece of paper that someone wrote to someone
without attaching an official seal or a signature,” said the
spokesman, as cited by Ukrinform. “We do not comment on such
papers.”

The Crimean parliament has also denied allegations of issuing
such a ban on Dzhemilev, saying that his name is not included in
the officially compiled travel restriction list which now has
over 340 names.

“The State Council did not take any decisions restricting
entry and exit of Mustafa Dzhemilev to the territory of
Crimea,” the Deputy Chairman of the Crimean parliament
Konstantin Baharev told Ria Novosti.

“Earlier, the Presidium of the Crimean parliament formed a
list of more than 300 persona non grata from Ukrainian MPs who
opposed the Crimean initiative to hold a referendum on
self-determination.”

The apparently fake ‘Notification of non-permission of entry to
the Russian Federation’ without any official insignia or seal was
allegedly handed over to Dzhemilev early on Tuesday morning on
the border of Russia and Ukraine when the MP was en route from
Crimea to Kiev.

Unsigned and without letterhead, the paper said that “Mustafa
Dzhemilev ... citizen of Ukraine” was barred entry to Russia on
the basis of federal law for five years or until April 19,
2019.

Dzhemilev was quick to spread the forged paper online commenting
that the alleged ban serves to show “nothing more than an
indicator of how 'civilized' is the state we're dealing
with,” referring to Russia, local media quoted him as
saying.

But speaking to Ukraine's Channel 5 TV, Dzhimilev acknowledged
the lack of signature and said he was not certain that the
document came from the Russian government, because the man who
handed over the alleged ban did not identify himself. He said he
intends to continue his travels to Crimea.

“Dzhemilev came to Crimea with specific provocative goals.
And what he was doing here can be described only as a provocation
aimed at ethnic clashes between people,” he told
journalists.

Olga Kovitidi – who represents Crimea in Russia’s upper house of
parliament – said that Dzhemilev has now become “a political
leader without people” as Crimean Tatars are not interested in
political confrontation with the government, but “want to
live in peace and have true leaders who care about tomorrow for
the people.”

Premature accusations of Russia being behind the ban is
“cheap anti-Russian populism and nothing more,” member
of the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights,
Vladimir Shaposhnikov told Ria, adding the MP should first get
acquainted with the document he received, double check the laws,
and then make accusations.

“Now I can only see much ado about nothing. Before raising
the cry Mr. Dzhimilev is should have first of all checked the law
'On the Procedure for Exit from the Russian Federation and Entry
into the Russian Federation' and read the article on the basis of
which he was allegedly denied entry,” said Shaposhnikov.

But Washington was quick to support Dzhimilev's statements that
he has made after his return from Crimea, in particular
accusations the Russian Security Service is keeping a close watch
on the Tatar poulation of Crimea.

“Today, Crimean Tatar community leader, Mustafa Dzhemilev,
who has been in Washington a couple weeks ago and had meetings
here in this building, gave some alarming remarks. And he said
that – warned today that possible bloodshed in Crimea and
southern Ukraine is coming up, and he also stated that some of
the FSB officers from Moscow who hope to promote new deportation
of the Tatars,” State Department's spokeswoman Jen Psaki
told reporter on Tuesday.

On Monday president Vladimir Putin signed a decree ruling Stalin's 1940s deportation of
Crimean Tatars and other ethnic minorities on the peninsula was
illegal.

“We must make sure that as part of Crimea’s integration into
Russia, Crimean Tatars are rehabilitated and their historic
rights restored,” the Russian leader said during an official
meeting in Moscow. The decree also allowed Tatar education in
their native language.

This is not the first time over the last few weeks the US has
backed its rhetorical comments for the Western media with
questionable documents presented as hard evidence.

Last week a letter urging the Jews of Donetsk to get registered
or have their citizenships revoked, was presented as factual
evidence of chaos and widespread human rights abuses by the US
Secretary of State in Geneva. The letter turned out to be a fake
according to a man whose name was typed on the communication.

On Sunday, the White House endorsed a set of photographs
allegedly proving that armed men in Eastern Ukraine are members
of Russian military and intelligence forces. The self-installed
government in Kiev presented these photographs last week to the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
claiming that they document Russian combatants in Ukraine,
allegations Russia denies. The US State Department maintains that
the Ukrainian materials are convincing enough to be called
evidence.

“Ukrainians presented a range of photos in Vienna just a few
weeks ago. There have been a range of photos available in
international media, available on Twitter and social media sites
that have portrayed a range of events,” Psaki said Tuesday.

“We still feel confident that there is a strong connection
between Russia and the armed militants in eastern Ukraine across
the board. It’s – we’ve seen similar steps that – or similar
behavior we saw in Crimea just a couple of weeks ago. And we are
obviously watching what is happening on the ground very
closely.”

The former head of Mejlis, an organization which has been
steadily losing its influence in the Crimean Tatar community,
Dzhemilev showed strong opposition to Crimea's vote of
self-determination. On the eve of the March referendum he was
calling on Crimean Tatars, who make up 12 percent of population
in Crimea, to ignore the vote. In the meantime Refat Chubarov,
the acting chairman of Mejlis, recently told local radio that he
was planning to receive a Russian passport and stay in Crimea.